Be Advised...

IACP 2010: New real-time video capabilities from Motorola

Agencies now have the ability to use a traffic enforcement trailer to scan license plates passing through strategically sensitive areas

During the 2010 IACP conference in Orlando, Motorola announced the launch of several new video solutions — including the Motorola Realtime Video Intelligence (RTVI) wireless video access and collaboration system and the Motorola ALT1000 Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) surveillance trailer — designed to help police agencies more efficiently and effectively leverage existing fixed and mobile video surveillance assets. Admittedly, that reads like a mouthful of technical mumbo-jumbo, so let’s suffice it to say that there are a couple of compelling new video assets coming soon to law enforcers — the ability to see an active scene on your MDT before you even get there, and the ability to use a traffic enforcement trailer to scan thousands of license plates passing through strategically sensitive areas.

Let’s look briefly at each distinct area.

Tactical In-Car Video“We have a lot of different aspects of video that can make an officer’s life easier,” said Les Miller, a Motorola product manager who took time from his busy day to brief me on this stuff at IACP this week.

“This is the MVX1000 in-car digital video recorder, a new Motorola product that will be launching in January 2011. It’s designed by the same folks that do our MW810 mobile workstation so we’re very confident that it’s going to be extremely robust, extremely strong, extremely durable. It’s got no moving parts — it has a solid state drive — and can support up to four cameras and up to three microphones. From a real-time video intelligence perspective, there would be another application on the user’s in-vehicle computer where the officer would have the capability to actually see what’s going on with another MVX1000 in another vehicle, or see what’s going on from fixed video cameras in the vicinity,” Miller said.

In essence, the video display will show not only what’s being “seen” by the in-car video cameras of that one officer’s squad, but also get tactically significant video from another officer’s car — or another video feed like traffic cameras or security cameras connected to the system — to get eyes on target before even arriving at a scene. In addition, all this video can also be controlled and viewed remotely from a mobile or fixed-point command center.

“Imagine a patrol supervisor responding to an officer down or a shots-fired type of scenario, they’d be able to actually pull up local fixed video surveillance cameras and the MVX1000 front camera view from a unit that’s already on the scene. They would be able to say, ‘Okay, here’s what the officer on the scene is seeing, here’s what the video camera on the corner is seeing—now I’ve got a much better idea of tactically what I’m driving into.”

‘Slow Down!,’ ‘Stay Out!,’ and ‘You’re Under Arrest!’“The ALT1000 ALPR trailer looks much like any standard radar trailer you may have seen in your own neighborhood, but it can scan license plates as they pass. It’s not just 'Hey, slow down you’re going too fast,' but you can integrate up to four ALPR cameras with both the color and infra-red capability. So you can scan license plates as people pass this location and there’s the capability to actually notify officers as well.”

Miller explained further that if you were to get a hit on a license plate known to be a stolen vehicle, or perhaps associated with individuals known to be precluded from areas such as school zones, the system can automatically to send out a message to a nearby officer, “This license plate is in your vicinity — go get ‘em.”

LAPD is already using the system, according to Miller, and other agencies are looking closely at adding it to their inventory. Agencies interested in participating in the Beta Test program for either technology can contact their local Motorola sales representative, who can then put you in touch with Miller.

About the author

Doug Wyllie is Editor in Chief of PoliceOne, responsible for setting the editorial direction of the website and managing the planned editorial features by our roster of expert writers. An award-winning columnist — he is the 2014 Western Publishing Association "Maggie Award" winner in the category of Best Regularly Featured Digital Edition Column — Doug has authored more than 800 feature articles and tactical tips on a wide range of topics and trends that affect the law enforcement community. Doug is a member of International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association (ILEETA), an Associate Member of the California Peace Officers' Association (CPOA), and a member of the Public Safety Writers Association (PSWA). Even in his "spare" time, he is active in his support for the law enforcement community, contributing his time and talents toward police-related charitable events as well as participating in force-on-force training, search-and-rescue training, and other scenario-based training designed to prepare cops for the fight they face every day on the street.

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